


A Pack Meeting and Paint Fumes

by LaBelleetlaloup



Series: Forging a Pack [4]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Mentioned Allison Argent, Mentioned Deucalion, Mentioned Ennis - Freeform, Mentioned Kali, Mentioned Scott McCall, POV Stiles, Season/Series 02, Season/Series 03, The Alpha Pack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-25
Updated: 2016-10-25
Packaged: 2018-08-21 23:14:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8263999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaBelleetlaloup/pseuds/LaBelleetlaloup
Summary: Derek and Peter are late to the first Thursday Pack Meeting. And then once they finally arrive, they reek of paint fumes.





	

After that first awkward Monday lunch, Allison had moved to her own table. Scott had tried to join her but ended up sitting with some of the other lacrosse players. Danny mostly monopolized Jackson’s attention, but Lydia was perfectly willing to talk to everyone, so the conversation never got too awkward.

On Tuesday after school, Jackson and Stiles took the Jeep to the mechanic in Beacon Heights to get the repairs done. As he’d promised, Jackson handed over his credit card in payment. Stiles got a ride to school from Peter with Isaac on Wednesday and Jackson took him back to the mechanic to pick the Jeep back up after school. Jackson also paid for Stiles to take his baby through the car wash.

Thursday was the night they had designated for weekly pack gatherings, so that they would all be able to see one another at least once a week. Stiles had this feeling that the teenagers would probably end up spending most of their time in Derek’s loft once school was out for the summer, but once a week for the month until then would be good enough.

After school, Isaac, Erica, and Boyd all got into Stiles’ Jeep. Normally Peter or Derek came and picked up Isaac, since they hadn’t gotten him a car yet, but since Stiles had his Jeep back, there was no reason to bother with the trip. Jackson and Danny were in the Porsche and Lydia had her own car. Isaac had been the last in the car because he’d had to dodge the overly concerned guidance counselor, but Erica had slid into the backseat with Boyd. Stiles still had not gotten a chance to say anything to Boyd, but he should. At some point. When they weren’t surrounded by wolfy eavesdroppers.

When they arrived at the loft, Stiles had to be half-dragged into the elevator of death, but Derek was the best most wonderful alpha in the whole world and the elevator no longer sounded like a horror movie. It just dinged cheerily once they reached the top. Stiles bounded out, intent on thanking Derek profusely for fixing the issue so promptly.

But the door was not just closed, but locked. Isaac had a key and let them in. But the water wasn’t running, no one was in the living room, no one was in the kitchen. Derek and Peter were nowhere to be found. The night before, they had clarified that everyone should come over straight after school, so everyone was a little confused by Derek and Peter not being home.

“They’re probably still running errands,” Lydia suggested.

“Maybe they went to pick up more groceries,” Stiles agreed. Between teenage appetites and werewolf appetites, they would need enough to feed a small army.

“You’re probably right,” Isaac nodded. “Derek said something about him and Peter running errands today. I’m sure they’ll be back soon.”

“Well, why don’t we get started on that Chemistry homework?” Stiles suggested. “I, for one, do not want to have to figure that stuff out by myself tonight.”

“It’s not that difficult!” Lydia insisted.

Everyone pulled out their homework and got started working on it. They all got the Chemistry done. Boyd, smart chap who had left Chemistry for the following year, did his reading for English. Lydia helped Erica with her math homework. Isaac and Stiles puzzled out the history worksheet. But then it had been nearly two hours since they’d arrived and Derek and Peter still weren’t back yet.

“Should we call them?” Stiles asked. Isaac had been looking worriedly at his phone every few seconds for a while now. Stiles was not admitting that he might have been doing the same thing. Luckily, about the time he asked the question, the wolves all perked up, looking toward the door.

“They’re downstairs!” Isaac happily announced. Everyone started clearing up their books and papers.

After a moment the elevator dinged cheerily. The door to the loft opened. All the wolves recoiled. Even Stiles, Lydia, and Danny could smell the paint fumes. It was awful. No one made any move to approach their alpha.

“What happened?” Boyd demanded angrily.

“We’ll tell you all about it after we get cleaned up,” Derek assured him. He was heading for the stairs and the bathroom.

“It’s another pack,” Peter clarified.

“Friends?” Stiles was hopeful but not expectant.

“Obviously not!” Boyd snapped, gesturing at Peter and Derek with clawed hands.

“They didn’t pelt the car with paint. They carved their symbol on the door to the old den. It might be a threat or it might just be a calling card. We’ll discuss it in a minute.”

“We just had to paint the door to cover up their symbol,” Derek added. “Now, let us go wash the fumes off and then we can talk about it.” Peter and Derek managed to successfully get upstairs. The teenagers were all sort of bewildered as to how to respond. Obviously, the smell had to be killing them and it was understandable they wanted to clean up, but were they really supposed to just wait to find out what was going on after Peter said it might have been a threat and they’d been offended enough to go into town, get paint and probably putty to fill it in if it was carved, paint the door, and not remember to tell anyone they would be late?

“This doesn’t sound good,” Erica finally broke the silence.

“Depends on the pack,” Danny spoke up. “There’s some that it should be fine. But there are some packs that really are monsters. They just slaughter anything in their path.”

“Please, Mary, Mother of God, do not let it be murderers,” Stiles begged. No one had any disagreement with that sentiment.

With almost no information to go on, they just spent the time that Derek and Peter were cleaning up worrying. After what felt like an eternity, Derek and Peter both came downstairs clean in fresh clothes. Everyone except Lydia and Danny jumped up and mobbed their alpha. Derek managed to stay on his feet and make reassuring noises. Peter herded them back to the table, pulled out his phone, opened his pictures, and dropped it in the center of the table. There was a picture of some sort of black sigil painted on the old door. Well, at least it hadn’t been carved? But then Danny went very still.

“Is that Deucalion’s symbol?” he whispered.

Derek nodded, quickly adding, “Deucalion and Laura were on fairly good terms and he’s advocated retaliation for years now. It’s possible that because she was in two pieces, he thought that the Hunters were involved and he or one of the other alphas he works with bit Victoria and the sigil was just to confirm to us that it was them. Peter and I haven’t been out there much recently, so it’s possible that it could have been done over a week ago.”

Danny looked flabbergasted. “What do you mean good terms?” he demanded.

“Uh, who is this guy anyway?” Boyd asked. “Danny thought he was terrifying but you’re saying maybe he just swung by to lob an attack at the Argents on your sister’s behalf?”

Derek sighed. He took a moment to gather his thoughts. “My mother knew him. For a long time, they were close allies. I don’t know exactly what happened, but his reputation used to be pacifism. He didn’t believe in violence or vengeance. About the time the Argents, under Gerard, started harassing packs especially in areas like this where there’s a high supernatural population, Deucalion switched on a dime. A bunch of his betas were found slaughtered in what looked like a Hunter attack. Maybe that was it? I can’t be sure. But they eventually found the rest of his pack – his wife, the children, the humans… The local police officially ruled it a tragic bear attack. And ever since, Deucalion has travelled around with a few other packless alphas, and he’s known for savage violence. One of the other alphas is Ennis. I know he came to Mom because one of his betas had been killed by Hunters and he wanted her support. He tried to attack the Hunters, but it just ended in slaughter. Ennis managed to survive, but he was always hotheaded. Laura refused to let one of the others in the den, but I know her name was Kali. I don’t know what happened to her pack, but even her Emissary was dead. There could be any number of others with them.”

“So, why was Laura on good terms with Deucalion?” Stiles prompted. “He doesn’t sound like he was all that nice. Did she just feel like she still had to honor your mother’s connection to him?”

“Uh…” Derek blushed.

“Apparently my niece developed even worse taste in men than she had in high school,” Peter sneered. Stiles had to agree with the sentiment, but he just winced.

“It wasn’t like that!” Derek insisted. Even he didn’t look entirely convinced though. “It was an alpha thing.”

“That would be a good argument in favor of the guy swinging by just to attack the Argents, though.” Isaac generously steered the subject back to safer ground.

“Yes, exactly,” Derek nodded. “Neither Deucalion nor anyone else in his pack have bothered us at all. For the moment, I don’t want you to worry about this. Probably I just hadn’t noticed it and it was just to let us know that it was him who bit Victoria. Since I didn’t do it, it makes sense. However, we have to assume that every single individual member of his pack is dangerous. If you smell an alpha around who isn’t me, do not approach them. Come get me.”

“And what about those of us who don’t have that kind of sense of smell?” Danny asked snottily.

“You have magic,” Derek rolled his eyes. Danny shrugged.

“What about me and Lydia? How would we know it’s an alpha as opposed to any other kind of creeper?” Stiles managed to wriggle in between Isaac and Derek so he was tucked under Derek’s arm. Derek rubbed a hand absently over Stiles’ head before wrapping his arm around both of them.

“I suppose there wouldn’t be any sure way, short of them flashing their eyes at you, or saying something. Just be cautious. But I don’t anticipate there being a problem here. Deucalion got along very well with Laura and there’s no reason for him to be upset with me. We should be absolutely fine. If it turns out that for whatever reason, he is upset, then we can plan for how to contend with that. Until we have reason to believe there’s a threat, we’re just going to go about our normal business, okay?”

Everyone agreed. They would not panic over something that would hopefully not end up being a problem.

Peter spoke up at that point. “Honestly, the only thing I can come up with as to why Deucalion would be upset would be Scott’s fraternizing with the Argents, but since he’s not our pack, that should be able to be solved with a bit of diplomacy. So, there’s no reason to get all the cubs worked up.” He aimed that last bit at Derek. But Danny was the one who bristled. Apparently he did not appreciate the moniker. Stiles had no problem with it. It meant that Peter considered all of them to be children, which compared to him they were. It was a sign of mental health.

Peter was also the one to start everyone making the arrangements for supper. Erica took over the pizza order when Derek started growling at everyone talking over each other. Lydia was the one to start the discussion about possibly watching a movie. Luckily Isaac vetoed The Notebook and Erica backed him up, insisting that if they had to watch a Nicholas Sparks adaptation, couldn’t it be _Dear John_?


End file.
